The client is a business center that focuses on helping SMEs with limited resources.  First Capital’s engagement was rather universal as we pride ourselves for providing a comprehensive range of advisory service to the client.  In particular, we handled the following:

• Conduct feasibility study and valuation:

  This was a slightly unconventional assignment as the client could very much be a direct competitors.  Yet, we could see a lot of synergies and when working out the numbers.  We also performed thorough business valuation and due diligence as the client become a takeover target by a major business.

• Defining products and services, setting prices and service levels:

  We suggested a set of products and services to be offered to startup and existing SMEs and helped the client set the price and service level.  We even presented operation manuals and service agreements and contracts.

• HR consultancy, recruitment and training

  Our role involved creating HR manuals, defining HR requirements, creating organizational chart and drafting job description and job specifications for each position.   We were also involved in identifying the right candidate for each position.

The solution First Capital crafted combined cutting edge technology with real world practicality. Everyone knew that the issue of empowering SMEs was a hot topic among Omanis.  The government aggressively encouraged entrepreneurship among young Omanis to relief the pressure on the government sector.  The real challenge was to get entrepreneurs to pay for your services while they have a range of consulting services granted by the government absolutely free of charge!  without disrupting the promoter’s ambitious in a negative way.  The solution was to introduce value-added services that can never be found elsewhere and SME owners can never ignore.

This allowed the client to focus on setting up the right product range.  This objective was met by collecting relevant market data through interaction with almost everyone involved in the SME business in Oman like bankers and financiers, regulators and young Omanis aspiring to start their own business.